If the Indonesian Revolution was to survive the violence in Surabaya, its strategy had to change. At first, the shipping Boycott was valuable for the new Republic because it cut the transport arteries the Dutch needed to retake the colony. It had also mobilised international support: the calls for a Boycott of Dutch shipping had been taken up in Australia, New Zealand, the USA, and India, not only by unions but also by political organisations. But after the overwhelming military strength of the British was demonstrated in the unrelenting bombardment of Surabaya, the Dutch felt emboldened to impose and then tighten their own naval blockade around the Republic. Furthermore, the brutalities of the conflict in Surabaya contributed to weakening the united front among Australian trade unions, which allowed the ACTU to call for the interruption of the Boycott to load ‘mercy ships’.

As the military situation worsened throughout 1946, the Republican leadership – and their supporters of all political hues – began to turn to trade and commerce as strategies for establishing international support for the new Republic. One by one, various trade possibilities were attempted with the goal of achieving some lasting links, and there was a strident chorus of pressure from international supporters urging the Republic to hasten the expansion of trade relations. Each of the players introduced in the previous chapters became caught up in this endeavour. This was often an uncomfortable and unfamiliar avenue, as only a few of these supporters had experience in trade. First there were P.R.S. Mani and T.D. Kundan, who both saw the potential for trade in rice and textiles between the nationalists in Indonesia and in India as a way to strengthen both freedom movements. Then Clarrie Campbell was appointed by Sjahrir as Temporary (and Honorary) Trade Commissioner in December 1946; through the following year he worked with activists like Fred Wong in Australia while consolidating his links with Indonesian trade unionists and communists like Haryono, by then Chair of the peak Trade Union body in Indonesia, Sentral Organisasi Buruh Seluruh Indonesia, better known as SOBSI. This placed both Haryono and Campbell, as communist and fellow traveller respectively, in difficult positions as they grappled to find strategies that would be most likely to end Dutch control.